My husband and I recently had a couple of meetings with a TIAA retirement planner (husband's idea). Since we were not paying him, we asked whether or not he was paid on commission. He said that he was not -- that he was a salaried and he and others in their office got raises based broadly on client satisfaction and that the financial planning he offered was a service that TIAA gave to its clients.
Since then, I can see that he does indeed soft-pedal various products and services that could be construed as being in our best interest (as well as his and TIAA's). The latest example of this is the suggestion that we move our savings account (Suntrust money market with a pathetic interest rate of .05%) to a TIAA "high yield" savings account (with a somewhat less pathetic interest rate of .65%). I'm currently asking some questions about this (such as what will it mean to have our checking and savings at different instituions; how can we transfer from one to the other; does Suntrust have any better options to offer us, etc.)
However, the question I have for you today is about another of his other pieces of advice. He suggested that my husband move his funds from his retirement plan at his old university and merge them with those in his retirement plan at his current university. This way (says the retirement planner) we will be able to benefit from a better class of stock (I think this is what he said, does this make sense?). I'm not too skeptical because both funds are in TIAA -- it's not like he's asking us to transfer fund from another company to TIAA. Still, I like to make some attempt to get a few other opinions and you guys seem like a smart bunch. Could there be any catches to a consolidation move like this? Are there any questions I should be asking about this?
[ETA: Now it seems to me like this thread might have been better in the "Investor Alley" forum. Sorry ...]
